


The Path Less Taken

by tess1978



Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: F/M, I am not sure where I am going with this so it's kind of badly tagged, I will tag more as I know what I am putting in it, Love Triangles, Possible Character Death, Possible non-con, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, soul mates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 20:00:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15323184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tess1978/pseuds/tess1978
Summary: City girl and recent college graduate Hildi finds herself as the new Deputy in Hope County, a small town community with a dark secret. There, she meets a local troublemaker with an unwieldy name, and they become the most unlikely of friends.But when the situation with a local cult reaches a boiling point, and the soul-name on her wrist changes color, it soon becomes clear that Hildi has much, much bigger problems.





	The Path Less Taken

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, so, this is the first non-Fallout fic I've written. I'm not entirely sure where I am going to go with it, and I am having a busy summer on top of things, so I don't know how well updating is going to go. I also know this is not tagged as well as I would like, but like I said, I'm not sure where I am taking this at this point. If you are bookmarking or following this story, please check the tags each time, as I will update them as needed. 
> 
> Some things which could potentially occur:  
> *Major Character Death  
> *Cheating  
> *Love Triangles  
> *Explicit sex  
> *Non-con or dub-con  
> *Torture  
> *Canon-Typical violence  
> If these are an issue, probably best to wait until I have a bit more down.  
> Meanwhile, the first chapter is kind of wholesome, so it shouldn't be too bad right off the bat. Enjoy!
> 
> *Not beta read*

Hildi Anderson snapped awake, her body sweaty and overheated, a throbbing heat between her legs. Her dream, bloody and frightening, was fading quickly. 

She turned on the lamp and went to get a drink in the bathroom. She’d slept restlessly ever since she’d arrived in Hope County, just a little over a week ago. She didn’t remember the dream, but she remembered how it made her feel. Frightened. Frightened… and aroused.

She sat on the toilet to pee, blinking in the bright light, tracing the letters on her wrist absently. Maybe it was just the stress of the move. Coming to a whole other part of the country, doing a job she had never expected… it was bound to disturb anyone’s rest. But her first day at work was tomorrow and she needed to find a way to sleep.

She returned to her bed and pulled the comforter up to her chin. She closed her eyes, but sleep would not come. She missed the sound of cars passing outside at night. The only light that shone into her bedroom was from the moon. 

She rolled onto her back and looked at the ceiling. There was a crack in the plaster there. There were a number of cracks in the old house she’d recently inherited, but she’d had the home inspected and it was structurally sound.

Even if it did creak a little.

The house was big, five bedrooms, two bathrooms. It even had a parlour, which was currently stacked with boxes she had yet to unpack. Hildi had inherited the house from her grandmother, despite never having met the woman. Her mother had left Montana as a teen and run off with Hildi’s father, cutting off all contact with her parents. Hildi’s dad had died when Hildi was fifteen, and insurance had paid for the first two years of college. But when her mom got cancer in her sophomore year, medical bills ate up what was left of the money, and by the time Hildi graduated, her mom was gone as well and she had nothing but debt.

She’d struggled to find a job as a paralegal in Chicago, where she’d grown up, and had begun to grow desperate, when she got the call from her grandmother’s lawyer that her only surviving relative had passed, leaving her ten acres and a house.

It was then that she decided to move to Hope County. She figured with a little elbow-grease she could sell the house and pay down her debt, and maybe get a fresh start. 

There were no paralegal openings in Hope County, but there was a position in the county sheriff's office. On a whim, she applied, and to her shock, was hired the next day as a junior deputy. She’d never seen herself as law enforcement before, but apparently she was qualified… or would be after a few courses and on-the-job training.

And who knew. Maybe getting out in the community would be a good way to get to know people. 

Hildi had never had many friends. Quiet and a little nerdy, she’d preferred books over people most of her life. But with her family gone and the few friends she’d made in college having moved on with their lives, she had to admit to herself she was a little lonely. 

She rolled over and looked at the clock. She’d been awake almost an hour and she felt more alert than before. She got up with a sigh and padded down the stairs to the living room, sitting on the couch and turning on the ancient tv. It was one of those 1970s console sets, and the red was gone, so everything was a washed out green. Her grandmother hadn’t kept up on technology, she figured. 

There was a movie on. Some old flick about a woman leaving her husband for her soulmate. It was an overdone trope. There must have been a thousand movies made with the same plot. Hildi was pretty sure she’d even seen this one before. She thought the husband murdered them at the end. She rolled her eyes. 

Finding your soulmate was pretty uncommon. Hildi knew one guy from high school who had found his. She’d seen it on Facebook. Apparently, she went to the same college as him, and one day he was in his bio class and when the new girl came in, his name changed colour. It was pretty romantic, but also pretty rare. She glanced at the name on her arm. It was a common name, not worth Googling, but at least it was in English. A good third of the kids in her class had Chinese names on their arms, and one unfortunate kid had an Arabic name, causing him to be called a terrorist throughout most of high school. 

She flicked through the channels for a few more minutes, finally settling back on the movie. The other channels all had nothing but infomercials on. She tucked her feet under her and laid down, thinking she’d be up until dawn. It was only a moment until she fell asleep.

***

Her alarm going off upstairs woke her, and she sat up stiffly, a crick in her neck from the uncomfortable sofa. She stumbled upstairs and turned off the clock, before getting in the shower. After dressing, she made her way downstairs and downed a cup of instant coffee before heading into town to the sheriff’s office.

Sheriff Whitehorse greeted her. “Welcome to Hope County, Deputy Anderson. Let me introduce you to everyone.”

He took her around the office, showing her her desk and introducing her to the other three deputies, Joey Hudson and Staci Pratt were getting ready to go patrol the highways, and Nancy Stone, an older woman in her mid-fifties, was working the dispatch. 

“That US Marshall is on the phone for you again, Sheriff,” Nancy said after they had been introduced. “He’s been calling all week. I don’t think you can put him off any longer.”

“Fine, I’ll take it in my office. I told them they should leave well enough alone, but…” Sherriff Whitehorse trailed off. “Look, Pratt. I was going to take the rookie out on a tour of the county this morning, but I have to deal with this idiot Burke. What say you take her out and give her the grand tour?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Deputy Pratt replied, and the Sheriff nodded and turned to go into his office.

Behind them, the radio buzzed to life. “We got a call from out Henbane area,” she said. “Boshaw’s got the speakers up again.”

Deputy Pratt rolled his eyes. “It’s barely eight in the morning. Wish that guy would get a job and stop making me drive out there. Let’s go, rook.”

Hildi blinked, but followed Deputy Pratt out to the car. 

As he drove, Pratt explained the situation. “Boshaw’s a bit of a local annoyance,” he explained. “Lots of noise complaints, public intoxication, the occasional wrecked car. The main problem is the arson. He’s a bit of a firebug. He’s been locked up four times for vandalism and whatnot. When he was in high school, he burned down the roller rink in Fall’s End. But he’s a bit of a charmer, and he always gets off without doing much time. You would think by his age he would have straightened out a bit.” Pratt sighed. “Like we don’t have enough to do without dealing with Boshaw every few weeks.”

About twenty minutes later, they pulled into a trailer park. A few people were out in their yards, glaring at one trailer, from which the Beegees blasted at about a billion decibels. 

Hildi looked at Pratt. He was saying something to her, but she couldn’t hear over the racket. He beckoned her closer. “Let’s go!” he shouted. She nodded, and followed him to the offending trailer.

Pratt started knocking on the door, before grinning wryly at Hildi. He then made a fist and banged as hard as he could. Hildi could barely even hear it over the racket. Pratt tried again before unsnapping his holster. Hildi looked at him in alarm. Was he going to shoot the door in?

He didn’t shoot the door. Instead, he grabbed the gun by the barrel and used the handle to rap loudly on the door. The music suddenly stopped, leaving Hildi’s ears ringing. Pratt replaced his gun.

The door was ripped open, and Hildi blinked in surprise. “Hey, it’s the popo!” the man said. He was tall, a little over six feet, and wearing nothing but tighty whities and a baseball cap. He had a flame tattoo on his right arm and another across his chest that said “HOT DAMN”

“We had a noise complaint, Sharky.”

“Ahh shit. Sorry, Staci. I was gettin’ my boogie on over here.” He turned to Hildi and smiled, his blue eyes crinkled in the corners. Hildi could feel her face heating up. She dropped her gaze, but found herself staring at his treasure trail, so she whipped her eyes back up to his. “Who’s the new girl?” 

“This is Deputy Anderson.” Pratt replied. 

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, Dep. My name is Charlemagne Victor Boshaw, but for the sake of brevity, you can call me Sharky.”

“Hi,” Hildi managed to squeak out.

Sharky braced his arm on the doorframe and grinned at Hildi. She could see the name on his wrist, some kind of foreign letters she didn’t recognize. “You busy later?”

“That’s enough, Sharky,” Pratt interrupted. “Can you keep the music down, please? I’d like to go a whole week without driving out here.”

“Yeah, I guess. Although, if you do, can you bring the new girl?”

Pratt didn’t dignify that with a response. “Let’s go, rook,” he said, and turned to go back to the car. Hildi stared up at Sharky for a minute and he grinned down at her. “I guess you gotta go, huh. Come back any time.” 

“Yeah, bye,” Hildi replied. She took a step backward and almost fell off the stoop. Sharky tossed his head back and laughed. Embarrassed, Hildi got in the car with Pratt.

“He’s a shit, but he’s mostly harmless,” Pratt told her. “Might as well get used to him.”

Hildi nodded, and sat quietly while Pratt drove. They patrolled the highway for a while. Pratt pointed out the landmarks as they went. Hildi noticed a lot of white trucks with a sort of cross symbol on them, and asked Pratt about them.

“Them’s Eden’s Gate folks. This family, the Seeds, just moved in a while back and been buying up land. Got a bunch of followers. Kind of creepy if you ask me. They even have a radio station. He reached over and turned on the radio. “We’ve been keeping an eye on them, but Whitehorse wants us to stay away from them.”

The music filled the car. It was kind of like Christian music, some song about John saving people from sin. Pratt turned it off after just a few seconds. 

“They’re so full of themselves. Joseph, he’s the leader, I guess. These Peggies, they call him ‘Father’. They even built a massive, incredibly ugly statue of him.”

“Peggies?” 

“Project Eden’s Gate. So we call them Peggies. They wear that symbol a lot, and I heard tell the sister, Faith, is drugging them, but we have no warrant to search.”

“Oh.”

“Then there’s Jacob, some ex army guy or something, and John, a big city lawyer.” 

Hildi glanced at her arm. “John?” 

“Yeah, the youngest brother. He has a ranch down in Holland Valley.”

Hildi nodded. 

“I’m sure you’ll meet them soon enough. The Marshall’s been calling Whitehorse about them Seeds day and night. At some point, I’m sure they’ll find something to bust them over.”


End file.
